Uruk adalah tipesitus untuk periode Uruk. Uruk memainkan peran utama di dalam urbanisasi awal Sumeria di pertengahan abad ke-4 SM.
Pada puncaknya skt. 2900 SM, Uruk mungkin memiliki 50,000–80,000 penduduk yang tinggal di area berdinding 6 km2 (2,32 sq mi); menjadikannya kota terbesar di dunia saat itu.[1] Raja legendaris Gilgames, menurut kronologi yang disajikan di dalam Daftar Raja Sumeria, memerintah Uruk pada abad ke-27 SM. Kota ini kehilangan kepentingan utamanya pada sekitar tahun 2000 SM, dalam konteks perjuangan Babilonia dengan Elam, namun tetap dihuni sepanjang periode Seleukia dan Parthia sampai akhirnya ditinggalkan sesaat sebelum atau setelah penaklukan Islam.
Situs Uruk dikunjungi pada tahun 1849 oleh William Kennett Loftus yang memimpin penggalian pertama dari tahun 1850 sampai 1854, dan mengenalinya sebagai "Erech", diketahui sebagai "kota kedua Nimrod".[2]
^William Kennett Loftus (1857). Travels and researches in Chaldaea and Susiana: with an account of excavations at Warka, the "Erech" of Nimrod, and Shush, "Shushan the Palace" of Esther, in 1849-52. Robert Carter & Brothers. Of the primeval cities founded by Nimrod, the son of Gush, four are represented, in Genesis x. 10, as giving origin to the rest : — "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Galneh, in the land of Shinar." ...let us see if there be any site which will correspond with the biblical Erech — the second city of Nimrod. About 120 miles southeast of Babylon, are some enormous piles of mounds, which, from their name and importance, appear at once to justify their claim to consideration. The name of Warka is derivable from Erech without unnecessary contortion. The original Hebrew word "Erk," or "Ark," is transformed into "Warka," either by changing the aleph into vau, or by simply prefixing the vau for the sake of euphony, as is customary in the conversion of Hebrew names to Arabic. If any dependence can be placed upon the derivation of modern from ancient names, this is more worthy of credence than most others of like nature.... Sir Henry Rawlinson states his belief that Warka is Erech, and in this he is supported by concurrent testimony.... [Footnote: See page xvi. of the Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1852 ; and Proceedings of the Royal Geogr. Society, vol. i., page 47]
^"The name al-ʿIrāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persianerāq 'lowlands'" W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
